Angry in the Great White North

The Canadian Press is moving this story over the wire (printed by the National Post, for example):

Tories miffed at Dion joke about Prime Minister Harper being overweight
(Harper-Fat-Joke)
By Alexander Panetta

OTTAWA (CP) Stephen Harper's troops aren't laughing at an apparent fat joke directed at the prime minister by his chief rival Stephane Dion.

Liberal leader Dion made a reference to the prime ministerial paunch this week during a TV interview in which he suggested Harper might need some exercise.

Expressing outrage at the wisecrack, senior government officials distributed transcripts of the joke to reporters Wednesday and offered up spokespeople for official comment.

One Tory cabinet minister said the joke was unbecoming of a man who aspires to be prime minister.

"We're partisan on a regular basis. But as a fellow politician right now I'm really embarrassed,'' said Helena Guergis, junior minister for sports and foreign affairs.

"Essentially what he's done is called the prime minister fat.''

She said "real leaders . . . do not go around making fun of other people's weight.''

That dig at the Liberal leader echoes new TV ads in which the Tories question Dion's leadership qualifications.

It was a discussion about those ads that led to Dion's joke in a Global TV interview. He said that negative ads were not his style and that he wouldn't stoop as low as the Tories had.

The Global reporter then pointed out to viewers that Dion wasn't above taking personal shots of his own.

The Liberal leader joked that the exercise room at Stornaway -- the official residence of the leader of the Opposition -- had been refurbished.

And he said the new workout room would benefit his successor.

"Maybe Mr. Harper will have the opportunity to lose his (extra) weight now because we have this exercise room,'' Dion said.

Guergis said she learned about the joke when her mother called from Angus, Ont., and sent an email to say she'd seen the TV exchange and was appalled by it.

Personally, I'm not so upset about the content of the joke. Some people are very sensitive about their weight, and still others like to be sensitive on behalf of others. I'm neither. But the speed at which Stephane Dion could say he would stoop to personal attacks, and then launch into what certainly seemed like a very personal attack (though offered in jest) is what amazes me.

Telling jokes is hard. A lot harder than writing a novel, I think. You have to get a point across, in a clever way, with a minimum of words. That takes real mastery of the language in which the joke is going to be heard. To be brutally honest, Stephane Dion lacks the skills required to tell jokes in English (and perhaps the aptitude, too, but then, for all I know, he might be a really funny guy despite the evidence to the contrary). Certainly he can't be trusted to tell off the cuff jokes like the one he tried to tell about Stephen Harper's weight.

I'm sure he could deliver a joke written out for him, and only if he practised. A lot. But then so could a parrot.

The point is, Dion needs to play to his strengths. That does not include speaking extemporaneously, at least not in English. We've seen that before. The only time he can appear spontaneous in English is if he practises it very carefully with an interviewer who is working to the same script. And with the help of others who repeat the claim that the scripted event was spontaneous.

Which isn't spontaneous at all, of course.

A stupid little comment about exercising is flaring up in his face. It shouldn't. But Dion can't manage these sorts of fluid unscripted moments very well. He ought to avoid them.

Of course, that's hard to do if you're prime minister. Something to consider.